Is this a BN Pleco???

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The females do not get the bristles. Only the males. Got mine very small and the male already had little bristles growing. I would suppose in a month or 2, but I might be wrong.
 
In a separate thread today, a fishkeeper who has BN fry in his tank indicated that the bristles start growing in at 3-4 months. I thought the females got them, too, but just not as heavy as the males.
 
I've got my female for 2 months now and not a sign of bristles. She's about 2.5 - 3 inches long. Might be depending on the species if the females get it or not. I know she is a BN because when the pet shop guy tried to catch her the hooks underneath the gills came out. Only Ancistrus do that when they are treatened.

My male I have for a month now and is about 2 inches and when I got him at the shop he had little stubbles. Since they have grown a bit.
 
The females will get them, they are just reduced, usually non-branching. The males' bristles can get pretty branched.
 
I had the same question posted a while ago and someone posted a scanned picture from a book of the different Plecos and how to identify them by using the shape of its mouth. A BN pleco has a round orifice. I can't post the link on my iPod so I'll have to hunt for it for a min or two. Brb.
 
There are way too many species of plecos with mouths way too similar for that to be reliable, the bristles are a lot more straight forward.
 
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